life as a Strange Mamma

The Rocket Scientist’s Birthday

Yay!! The Rocket Scientist is the same age as me again. Which is to say, old. I’m sure we’re actually very young, in fact I felt quite young until I learned that a couple in our church that I was sure was older than us by at least a half dozen years is actually younger by more than a couple years. Crap. Now I’m old. Oh well, the Rocket Scientist’s old with me.

I didn’t manage a surprise party for him or anything, but I did surprise him. Let me start at the beginning though. I had been so stressing the past couple weeks about leading worship and other things going on that, while I had known what I want to get him, I hadn’t actually gone and bought it yet.

So my plan today was, as soon as Doodle woke up from his first nap at 10:30 (he never sleeps later than that), we would run out to Target and pick everything up. Then we would be back in time to pick the Rocket Scientist up for lunch at Brazzaz. By the time we got home it would be time to put Doodle down for his second nap and I could wrap presents and bake the cake. Then when my husband got home from work, I would announce that I didn’t want to cook and go pick up pizza and on the way collect Arthur from the train station who was the Rocket Scientist’s surprise date to the movies tonight.

Well, Doodle slept to 11. His first two hour nap, ever! Well, since he was a baby and just falling asleep and waking up at random. When I should have been celebrating I was pacing outside his bedroom door, watching the clock and trying to decide if I should just bang around the kitchen really loudly. He finally woke up but only with enough time to get to Walgreens to buy Birthday cards. I know, I’m a terrible wife, I hadn’t even got a card yet.

We make it to the Rocket Scientist’s office exactly at noon to pick him up for lunch. Even better, we find a meter two blocks from the restaurant with an hour still on it. Sweet! Lunch was great, Doodle ate his own lunch of rice cereal in the high chair like a big boy and behaved beautifully. I guess there’s something to be said for a good nap. We even got a birthday dessert. The Rocket Scientist was kind of meh about it so I totally scored. Mmmmm, chocolate mousse. And as birthday meals out go, this was pretty conservative for us. We gave the Rocket Scientist his cards at lunch, including a gift card for AMC. (Little did he know he would get a chance to use it that night.)

However lunch at Brazzaz takes a long time and of course, Doodle fell asleep on the way home. So I decide to do something silly. I decide to try and nurse him while he’s asleep so I can put him down and he’ll sleep longer instead of waking up 20 minutes later hungry. At first it seems to go well, he nurses, staying asleep the whole time. Then, the moment he pops off, bing! Wide awake. Well crap. It’s only 2:30, he should be sleeping to 3 so he’s not wanting to go to bed at 5:30. Oh well, I still have to get to Target. So off we go again.

We finally get home at 4:30 with all our goodies. The Rocket Scientist is going to be home just after 5 and Arthur is going to be here by 5:30 and they have to leave by 6 to get to the show on time. I’ve got a cake to bake, pizza to get, and Doodle to feed, who by now is ready to throw a fit at the drop of a hat. You know you’re a mom when, you A) learn how to eat with your left hand so you can enjoy your lunch out at the same time as you feed your 6 month old hi lunch, B) manage to mix up cake batter also left-handed while you feed your now cranky 6 month old dinner, and C) are kind of glad you’ve arranged for your husband to go out on his birthday without you so you can have a nice long bath after your 6 month old, now so exhausted he can’t even nurse before bed, finally goes down for the night.

So not everything went as planned, the presents were bagged instead of wrapped, the house looked like a small, localized tornado had blown through, the pizza was pepperoni instead of Hawaiian because I didn’t get to call an order in ahead of time, Arthur had to walk from the train instead of get picked up, the cake was still cooling when the guys left the house and didn’t get decorated until after Doodle went to bed (that’s okay, I’m still to full from lunch to even think about eating anything else), but all in all, I think it was a good birthday for the Rocket Scientist. His first as a Dad. Momentous. And of course, the night isn’t over yet 😉 so I better get my bath in while I can.